In best ball drafts, there are many factors in our control, but there are some that aren’t and massively impact outcomes from the very second drafts start.
One of these factors is the stacks available to us. In this article, we’ll take a look at stacks that will be available at certain picks in drafts and how easy they are to achieve.
Best Ball Stacks by Picks
Best Ball Stacking Theory
By now, stacking has become completely commonplace in both best ball and the wider fantasy football space, with nearly everybody acknowledging that the simple idea that if your quarterback is throwing touchdowns and scoring points, then it’s worthwhile to have some of the players catching those passes and touchdowns. Mike Leone of Establish The Run found in 2024 that having zero stacks in Underdog’s Best Ball Mania finals led to an expected win rate of -30%, while having between six and nine stacked players in total led to a positive win-rate expectation of 32%.
In best ball drafts, there are many factors in our control, but there are some that aren’t and massively impact outcomes from the very second drafts start.
One of these factors is the stacks available to us. In this article, we’ll take a look at stacks that will be available at certain picks in drafts and how easy they are to achieve.
Best Ball Stacks by Picks
Best Ball Stacking Theory
By now, stacking has become completely commonplace in both best ball and the wider fantasy football space, with nearly everybody acknowledging that the simple idea that if your quarterback is throwing touchdowns and scoring points, then it’s worthwhile to have some of the players catching those passes and touchdowns. Mike Leone of Establish The Run found in 2024 that having zero stacks in Underdog’s Best Ball Mania finals led to an expected win rate of -30%, while having between six and nine stacked players in total led to a positive win-rate expectation of 32%.
Depending on your draft room, some stacks will appear on different sides of the board than usual, but typically, we see certain stacks more difficult to complete when a noteworthy piece of it is on the opposite side in average draft position (ADP).
Best Ball Stacks Available (Picks 1-4)
If you’re picking from the first third of the draft, four stacks fall to you more easily than the rest. The first is perhaps the highest value of all of them, with an easy path to securing the Bengals’ most valuable weapons. Ja’Marr Chase is the unquestioned 1.01 and Tee Higgins‘s ADP sits at 23, almost perfectly lining up with Chase.
Drafters could even tack on Chase Brown easily, with his ADP currently at 31, even if it is a half-round reach above ADP. This stack would likely be different from the standard Chase-Higgins combination. Joe Burrow‘s ADP of 53 makes him an easy get on the left-hand side of the board, but not all drafters are convinced of his value, with him only three picks behind Jalen Hurts in ADP, and the next quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) available 30 picks later.
The Minnesota Vikings are another interesting team on this side of the board, with Justin Jefferson a clear headline act. If Jefferson succeeds once again, J.J. McCarthy has likely been solid during his first healthy NFL season, making him a worthwhile pick also. The trouble with this stack is that it’s hard to make it a large stack without reaching heavily or hoping for sizeable falls.
Both Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson have ADPs firmly stuck to the opposite side of the board, with Addison’s ADP of 60 in the fifth round and Hockenson’s 85 ADP placing him in the eighth round. Aggressive drafters might want to pull one of the pair ahead of ADP, but pulling both across might result in giving up so much ADP value that it’s hard to recover.
If you fancy the Cardinals to continue trending upwards, as they did at points last season, then they are one of the more common and easily attainable stacks on the left-hand side of the board. Trey McBride (22) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (26) both have ADPs that land perfectly around the turn, making them a very easy double-tap, which, in turn, has kept Kyler Murray‘s ADP (93) firmly anchored to line up perfectly with his pass-catchers. So too is the slimmer stack of Garrett Wilson (25) and Justin Fields (104), even though it requires pushing up Fields’ ADP by a few spots.
Best Ball Stacks Available (Picks 5-8)
The middle area of the draft tends to be the most fluid due to players from the front or the back half of drafts being faded or pulled ahead of ADP more often. However, we commonly see easy stacking options for these three teams:
Best Ball Stacks Available Picks (9-12)
In the back half of the draft, there are some highly desirable stacks available, headlined by the Baltimore Ravens. Lamar Jackson‘s ADP sits firmly on this side of the board at pick 36, but his top pass-catcher, Zay Flowers, sits on the other side at pick 49. This gives drafters two approaches: Either pull Flowers up ahead of ADP or hope he falls past ADP back to the end of the fifth round.
Both approaches have good arguments in favor of each, as even a reach on Flowers, while it may come with a big opportunity cost, also has an obvious upside. At pick 108, Mark Andrews lines up perfectly in this range to stack with Jackson, coming off an 11-touchdown season. A slightly more alternative stack would be Derrick Henry at the round one/round two turn and then Jackson in round three, allowing you a huge percentage of the Ravens’ touchdowns one way or another.
An intriguing team from this area of the draft is the Houston Texans. It’s fair to say the Texans were a dead duck for fantasy football last year, with C.J. Stroud finishing as the QB28 in points per game despite being drafted as the QB5, and his pass-catchers all experiencing injuries and missed time throughout the year.
Perhaps, though, we’re going too far and overcorrecting this year. The Texans’ offensive line looks set to be awful, which will make running the ball rather difficult and should increase the likelihood of the Texans being a pass-first team. Stroud’s ADP is firmly anchored to this side of the board, lining up with Nico Collins.
Another AFC contender finds itself largely bunched on this side of the board in the Chiefs. Xavier Worthy (38), Hollywood Brown (130) and Patrick Mahomes (83) find themselves firmly lined up for the 11th spot, and Rashee Rice (32) and Travis Kelce (103) aren’t hard to obtain here either. The Chiefs have never been easier to stack, and while legitimate questions remain about playing style, it feels dangerous not to have some Chiefs exposure.
The Jaguars round out the AFC options on this side of the board with Brian Thomas Jr. frequently falling to the end of the first round with a 12th overall ADP, which lines up nicely with Travis Hunter (40), and is tied in a straight line with Trevor Lawrence. Perhaps this offense never lives up to the hope and the hype, but Liam Coen could be a breath of fresh air for Lawrence, and it’s not like the AFC South is flush with great defenses.
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